LGA 1156socket is Intel main product in 2nd half 2009.
The core technology is same as hi-end product LGA1366 which launched last year and make minor modification.
It will replace current mid-high product line.

Currently, LGA 1156 Chipset is P55, is Intel single chipset MB.
Some MCH functions are built in CPU. This is the key difference between P55 and X58.
Also, X58 is triple channel and QPI design. P55 is dual channel design.

Not hard to see that all MB manufacturers has announced their P55 products.
Same as hi-end X58, P55 also separate into hi-end, mid-end and entry price level.
This is GIGABYTE most hi-end one. The model name is P55-UD6.
Product package is big color box. It’s also the usual size for hi-end product.

GIGABYTE P55-UD6 Body

Ultra Durable3 is the key feature

Now the first launch LGA1156 CPU are i5-750, i7-850 and i7-870 3 models. The i7 support HT technology.
This article is retail version LGA 1156, the most hi-end one, Intel Core i7-870, clock 2.93GHz, L3 8MB.

Intel quad core CPU all bundle with copper bottom Cooler.
However, for i7 with HT, the original cooler cannot suffer for OC.

Upper right corner
6 X DIMM DDR3 support 800/1066/1333/1600. The highest DDR3 capacity is 16GB.
Not same as the others P55 with 4 DIMM. UD6 is 6 DIMM slots and provide more expansion capability.
DDR3 has 2 phase PWM and next by is 24-PIN power in.

Upper left corner
LGA 1156 CPU Socket
UD6 use 24 phase PWM which is the most hi-end spec in the market now.
For phase numbers, there are many discussions in the internet. Some think it’s good and some don’t.
I think if the energy saving design is good, and change phases by utility rate. More phase design is good.

Enable HT in i7-870 2.93GHz to simulate 8 core performance is also the highest performance in LGA 1156.
LGA 1156 DDR3 dual channel performance is also 30% higher than LGA 775. It all attribute to CPU built in memory controller.

Currently there is only original cooler, when OC to 4GHz, the CPU temperature is too high.
So you have to disable HT to run at 4GHz. As I get other hi-end cooler, I will do more test again.
200/2000 stable frequency doesn’t need too much setup. Voltage is also not high. As the experience, P55 OC ability is close to X58.

It can reach above 4.1GHz with original Cooler. The CPU OC range is good.
But the original cooler is not good enough, when it’s over 3.8G, the temperature could be over 90 degree.
Due to DDR3 only run at dual channel, DDR3 clock can pull up easier than triple channel i7.

As for first stage of LGA 1156 focus on mid-hi end, LGA 1336 CPU+MB price compare to LGA 1156 CPU+MB are not much.
Only if you use i5-750 without HT, these 2 platforms price gap will be 100~150USD.

Otherwise, current P55 boards in the market are around 5000~9000NTD which is 150~275USD.
By contrast, X58 boards are launched around 10 months and the price is around 6500~10000NTD which is 200~300USD.
In MB price, new P55 boards are positioning on more hi-end and the market will have more lower price P55 boards in the future.
During that time, the price gap between 2 platforms will be bigger.

For CPU, LGA 1156 will have more variety i5/i7 CPU, even entry i3 or dual core i7 CPU to support LGA 1156 will make this platform be more affordable.
GIGABYTE will also have over 10 models as naming UD3/UD4/UD6 P55 MB.

Now LGA 1156 platform starts from mid-high market and there are more PCU and vary boards in the market.
We are looking forward LGA 1156 structure platform moving to mainstream market to make users have more choice in affordable price.

Nice review and pics, although you may want to put "56K Warning" in the title since you have all those high res pictures that take a while to download. On my 800Kb/s apartment connection it took like 2-3 minutes to download the pics. Still a great review though!